On our 'Next Level Skiing' podcast, the inimitable Jason Blevins interviews some of the biggest names in skidom.

In December 2019, he interviewed Hilaree Nelson, one of the world’s greatest ski mountaineers and a member of Wagner’s tight-knit Telluride community.

Hilaree Nelson in her element. Photo courtesy of the Hilaree Fund.

Nelson logged first descents of major peaks, became the first woman to climb two 8,000-meter peaks in a day, and became the first to ski the 27,940-foot Lhotse with her partner Jim Morrison. But the thing she was most proud of was being a mother to two boys.

The world lost this bright star in September 2022, when Nelson was swept nearly 6,000 feet down a couloir by an avalanche on Manaslu, Nepal. She touched everyone who knew her, and set the track in uncharted territory for women everywhere.

Here is what Nelson had to say during her interview. (Click here to listen to the full episode.)

Photo courtesy of Outdoor Journal

Blevins: How did you get your start in skiing? You did not start your career on skis by banging gates.
Nelson: I grew up skiing at Stevens Pass, Wash., and I was on the race team, but it was a loose program at best. I am super jealous of that race background. My own kids are definitely getting a race background, and I’m doing that because I didn’t have that, and it’s always been something that I’ve struggled to overcome.

Blevins: How did you get the essential skills and ski talents without that ski racing background?
Nelson: I didn’t even realize what I was lacking until I started college in Colorado Springs at Colorado College and started skiing with a lot of kids who did have a race background and saw this huge deficit in my own skiing. I sought those skiers out and watched and listened and learned. After college, I moved to Chamonix, and that was a whole other level of skiing, and again, a huge part of it was actively seeking out those skiers with that skill set and mimicking them emulating what they were doing.

Blevins: Obviously Chamonix was an incredible place to pick up skills. What was that like, moving to that pinnacle of big mountain skiing?
Nelson: I have to preface that by me going into it thinking I was a really good skier. After my first week in Chamonix, I had to really reassess my ski skill set and understand that I had so much to learn, and the Washington state jump turn wasn’t going to cut it. it was mind-blowing. Chamonix isn’t just about the skiing, it’s so much about how you access the skiing. Going uphill, carrying a heavy pack, crampons, ice axes, and don’t fall into a crevasse. I’m pretty amazed I didn’t kill myself that first season with all those things I didn’t know. It was a long learning curve.

Blevins: That hop turn, that was pretty much everywhere. You were probably on long, skinny skis.
Nelson: This was the mid ’90s, I’m totally dating myself, but it was the era of the Scot Schmidt smear turn. There wasn’t a lot a lot of speed, it was about having this controlled, aggressive stance. And Chamonix is all about skiing above treeline on big, wide-open glaciers, you’re taking huge GS turns, it’s about speed—it’s a completely different style. I grew up skiing tight trees and short runs and about as polar opposite from the Chamonix terrain as you could imagine.

Nelson in the field with the North Face. Photo courtesy of the North Face.

Blevins: I look back, and I was on 212 cm straight GS boards hop turning, and I feel like I learned more about edge control than my teenage daughter doing a wiggle turn on fat skis. That was impossible back then. Is there a sense that maybe that background gave you edge control?
Nelson: Now I talk about skis in terms of how forgiving they are and how you could cheat on them, and we just didn’t have that technology in skis growing up. It was about having to control that edge and if you got in the backseat, there was no recovering. It really taught me how to be centered on your skis and use your weight to activate your turn. It’s so much easier nowadays with the new technology to shimmy and schuss and dump speed and slow down and go fast and not understand that edge control. It teaches you more about how to be in control. And that relates to my favorite type of skiing, which is steep consequential ski-mountaineering lines.

Blevins: A year ago, you shattered the ceiling with your pioneering descent of the Lhotse couloir. The video came out a couple weeks ago, and I’m blown away. Give us a little highlight.
Nelson: The sunrise that morning, I was so in the zone because at this point Jim and I were still trying to ascend without oxygen. We were the only ones there, there were no other expeditions, and we turned around to look and it was so incredible. When we were walking at 2 that morning, it was so cold and scary, and the sun just brings this whole feeling of life, like, you’re going to survive. It brought tears to my eyes, it was so beautiful. This is why I do this. This is why I take five weeks away from my kids, and this is why I love the mountains so much. Just that five minutes of sunrise was pretty incredible.

Nelson and partner Jim Morrison skinning. Photo courtesy of Nat Geo.

Blevins: It's the small moments.
Nelson: Yeah, it really is. I think if you understand we went to Lhotse to climb it and ski it, and you prepare yourself for the success and failure. But you don’t expect or prepare yourself for those little things along the way. That’s what makes the adventure and so worthwhile, and that’s what sets the tone for the joy of being successful. I had someone who said, now that you’ve skied Lhotse, you must be so bored coming home. I’m like, you’re totally missing the point. I just love skiing, I love being in the mountains, and it’s a lot because of those little moments.

Blevins: We’re talking today because we’re here to learn, and I’m pretty sure no one listening will ever ski Lhotse. What can we learn from these full-blown epic missions? How can you translate some of these things that you learn from these monumental and historic moments of history? What can you teach us mentally or physically?
Nelson: We went into that expedition with a pretty big understanding that the probability of our success was very low. But we did it anyways. We went to try. And that made the actual fact that we succeeded in doing it that much sweeter. So I guess if you’re looking for my advice at how to get better, you have to try. It’s so easy for us to look at a slope and say, “That’s beyond my skill set, I’m not going to try.” There’s so much value in saying yes to things and the actual act of trying, and understanding that you may not have success the first time around, but that eventually, if you keep working at it, you will have success.

Nelson takes a moment on the ski decent of Lotse.

Blevins: Trying slowly starts to tear down the impossible.
Nelson: Lhotse definitely didn’t happen overnight. This was a 15-year passion project. I spent two years training in Telluride and India and Alaska, and I worked really hard to be as ready as I could possibly be to have success. So if you break that down into becoming a better skier, it takes work, and you have to embrace the time and the trial and error before you can be better.

Blevins: And that translates into your personal risk assessment. Maybe that’s something else we can learn—how do you develop the focus?
Nelson: There’s a huge fitness element to it, but I’m in my mid-40s, and I’m not quite the off-the-couch athlete that I used to be, but at the same time I know my body well and my limitations. And one thing that has grown and developed is my confidence. Stepping into those skis on the top of Lhotse, those first turns are 60 degrees—it’s intense. And the thing that I was most nervous about was getting my skis on right. I was nervous about having the wherewithal to correctly put my bindings on.

Nelson contemplating her ski decent on Lotse.

Blevins: Has there ever been a moment where you’ve pushed too far?
Nelson: Yeah. The one that comes to mind is skiing on this peak called Papsura, aka the Peak of Evil, in India in 2017. I had tried before to no success, and the ski descent was a solid 55 degrees of bulletproof ice. I wouldn’t say we skied it, but we descended on skis, and all I wanted to do was get down. It was super scary, and I didn’t want to be there. And those emotions make you make mistakes, and there’s no room for mistakes, which is why that was so scary. Instead of panicking and going too fast, I stopped and changed what I was looking at. I turned around and looked up for 30 seconds and started again. I learned to do what you can to avert the panic before it sets in, but don’t rush and stay on top of that. Breathe, and don’t rush. Those saved my life that day.

Blevins: What happens after something as monumental as Lhotse?
Nelson: To come down from that high of success and adrenaline is hard. You come back from living this super simple life of survival and being so connected to the people you’re with to the daily distractions of email and housekeeping. It was really tough after this trip. What’s brought me back to life was time, and finding other things that interest me.

Nelson and sons in her home mountains of Telluride, Colorado. Photo courtesy of Blizzard/Technica.

Blevins: What’s a single piece of advice you’ve gotten in your career that still sticks with you?
Nelson: It actually came from Rob Delauriers, way back when in 1999. I was trying to navigate a steep couloir in Jackson Hole, and he gave me this tip to drive your tips but lift your tails. Keep your tips on the snow and lift your tails, kind of shimmying on your tips. You keep your flow and move through tight terrain. I think about that all the time when I’m skiing.

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Intro by Kim Beekman, original interview by Jason Blevins for 'Next Level Skiing' poscast.

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